The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
The Internet of Things (IoT) allows devices of all types, from thermostats to refrigerators to connect to the Internet and report status, receive instructions, and generally provide features and services to users that were previously unavailable in an unconnected device. However, many of these connected devices do not have trusted zones that safely store cryptographic secrets used for one-way or mutual authentication, encrypting or decrypting documents, and signing or signature verification of documents, among others. The lack of security puts many potential communication-related uses of a device at risk of eavesdropping, identity theft, or fraud. Even if the IoT device has trusted zone capability, an owner or operator may choose to not provision the IoT device. This may be done in order to prevent unintended exposure of personal data in the case of a hacking attempt or to prevent undesired communications from being made, such as online purchase transactions. In either case, these real or enforced limitations prevent the IoT device from adequately performing one or more functions that may desirable at some point to an owner or operator of the IoT device.